Pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, has expressed its opposition to the formation of an Interim National Government (ING) instead of conducting the 2023 general election in Nigeria.
The position of the group was contained in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Jare Ajayi, issued on Tuesday.
Afenifere urged President Muhammadu Buhari to resist any temptation to foist an Interim National Government on Nigerians.
It said the call followed a disclosure by Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State that some elements within the Presidency were scheming to have Buhari foist an ING on Nigerians.
Ajayi, in the statement on Tuesday, said: “We are making this call because of the sacrifices we, along with many other Nigerians dead and alive, have made to ensure that we have a civil rule.
“We are happy that we have had about 24 years of civil rule and six transitions between one civilian administration to another since 1999.
“There is no doubt that we can have better administrations and that we are desirous of having a change.
“But that change must be through democratic means as enshrined in our constitution.
“It is in this respect anything that could prompt the change of government through any other means is unacceptable.
“We are in agreement with the governor and all those who insist that elections must hold on February 25 and March 11, 2023, as scheduled.
“Apart from some elements acting or advocating for a regime change that is not recognized by the Constitution, some steps taken recently by the federal government and some of its agencies seem to indicate a desire to create an atmosphere that may make an institution of government in a manner that is alien to the constitution inevitable.
“Three of these steps are (i) creating artificial scarcity of fuel (ii) making it difficult for people to have access to their hard-earned monies and (iii) failing to tame the insecurity in the land.
“Granted that the latter has been with us for a while and we have been managing to move around in spite of it with the hope that the incoming administration will put a final stop to it, the first two were deliberately created to frustrate Nigerians and provoke them into actions that can be used as an excuse to foist a non-democratic government on the people.”